A Book of Migrations: Some Passages in IrelandStrangely positioned between Europe and the postcolonial world, Ireland occupies a fluid and contradictory space, not least in the memory or imagination of its many emigrants. In this sensitive exploration of the culture of others, Rebecca Solnit returns to Ireland, armed with a newly-acquired Irish passport - courtesy of otherwise forgotten maternal ancestors. Her journey is not to find stable identity in ancestral roots but to confront notions of stability, identity, ethnicity and nationalism in one of their great mythic sources. A Book of Migrations is a postcolonial revision of conventional travel literature. In her passage through Ireland, Rebecca Solnit portrays in microcosm a history made of great human tides of invasion, colonization, emigration, nomadism and tourism. Travel itself produces its own versions of memory and identity, and travel's transformation into the information age's pre-eminent industry - tourism - comes under close scrutiny. It is no accident that her journey culminates in an encounter with the Travellers, the indigenous nomads of contemporary Ireland. |
From inside the book
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Page 9
... rest of Europe didn't stick until the English brought it long after England's Roman phase . Christianity had come benignly , with St Patrick and various others in the fifth century , and when the rest of Europe was in its dark age of ...
... rest of Europe didn't stick until the English brought it long after England's Roman phase . Christianity had come benignly , with St Patrick and various others in the fifth century , and when the rest of Europe was in its dark age of ...
Page 16
... rest of the British Empire . Swift was a servant of the Church of England , and master of the cathedral . High above the south aisle , below a white bust of his heavy features and before the resting place of his remains , I found his ...
... rest of the British Empire . Swift was a servant of the Church of England , and master of the cathedral . High above the south aisle , below a white bust of his heavy features and before the resting place of his remains , I found his ...
Page 79
... rest of the earth . So far , the world consists of nothing but me and the road , the narrow road that eternally snakes around another bend , over another crest , out of sight ; the me that consists of a bevy of sensations and thoughts ...
... rest of the earth . So far , the world consists of nothing but me and the road , the narrow road that eternally snakes around another bend , over another crest , out of sight ; the me that consists of a bevy of sensations and thoughts ...
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American animals became become began beginning birds blood blue body California called Casement Catholic century changed church Cliffs of Moher culture described dream Dublin emigration England English Europe European exile Famine farm forest Galway green ground half head human identity imagination Ireland Irish island Jews Joyce kind land landscape language later least lived looked means memory metaphor mountain native nature never nomads North once origins passed past perhaps poem poets political population Press rest river road rock seemed sense side sometimes stone stories Street suggest Sweeney talk things thought told took tourist town tradition Travellers trees turned University walking walls wandering Wandering Jew whole wild woman writes York young